First Katrina, Now the Lawsuits

There are lawsuits of every type imaginable pending in Louisiana...and few juries available to hear them.

I found these two paragraphs near the conclusion of USA Today's article rather strange:

"...a disproportionate number of residents who've returned to the city are white. Does that mean juries will be less willing to award damages than pre-Katrina juries, which were so reliably sympathetic to plaintiffs in Orleans Parish that courts there became a haven for personal injury lawsuits?

"No one is sure. There is a sense of catastrophe, and now abandonment, among Katrina survivors that cuts across race, class and politics..."

The author goes on to conclude in a final paragraph that claims aren't being handled, but the paragraphing is such that this reads, to me, as though part of the catastrophe is that demographic changes may mean plaintiffs may no longer reliably receive damages. Perhaps it is simply unfortunate wording, or perhaps, given some of what we know about Louisiana, that's what the writer actually meant.

In any event, it doesn't sound as though it would be a bad thing if Orleans Parish were no longer "a haven for personal injury lawsuits."